Grouping fields with panels

This topic describes panels (and their associated components) that you can create to group fields on a form. For more detailed information, see these topics:

Panels

A panel is a container object that enables an application designer to group fields together on a form. Unlike trim boxes, which provide only visual grouping for fields, panels provide visual grouping and true container functionality. 

To style a panel, you can use many field properties: background color, including gradient fill; background image, including tiling and filling; opacity (transparent or opaque); border thickness; border color; and rounded corners (browsers only).

Panel holders

A panel holder can contain one or more panels. You can add panels and arrange the panel order and field layout. You can hide a panel holder border and tabbed panels in tabbed panel holders, and use workflow to display individual panels.

When creating panels, you can set properties (including field ID) for the panel holder and for each of the panels in it. In addition, you must provide permissions for each of the following levels:

• Panel holder
• Each panel in the holder
• Each field on each panel

Users without permission to the panel holder cannot see the panels or the fields in them. Users with permission to the panel holder but not to a panel cannot see any fields in the panel for which they lack permission. See Panel field permissions properties. 

 provides several options for configuring the layout and behavior of panel holders and the panels in them:

• You can configure panel holders so that multiple panels are tabbed, stacked to be visible at the same time (and can be collapsed or expanded), or in an accordion display that shows only one panel at a time.
• You can create panels with a splitter that can be dragged to control the relative sizes of adjacent panels. The splitter can be configured to be visible, invisible (not visible but can be dragged to resize the panels), or disabled (not visible and cannot be dragged).
• Panels can have a header area, in which you can specify a header color and add header text in a specified font. (On some browsers, using a large font for header text will cause the header label to wrap.)
• A panel's contents can be configured to enable its size to be changed dynamically.

These display options enable you to make better use of screen space and remove clutter on the screen.

By default for supported browsers, system popups and floating panels and panel holders have a drop shadow, whether the panel has rounded corners or not. A popup window opened by using an active link Open Window will have a drop shadow. For more information, see Creating-panel-holders.

Floating panels

You can create a panel or panel holder that overlaps a form. For example, you might want to superimpose a panel on a layout that contains other fields. These panels are called floating panels.

Floating panels can be modeless, which means that the panel is part of the form, and users can interact with panel and the base form interchangeably. Floating panels can also be modal, which means that users cannot interact with the base form until they close the panel. 

By default for supported browsers, system popups and floating panels and panel holders have a drop shadow, whether the panel has rounded corners or not. For more information, see Creating-panel-holders.

You can create the following types of floating panels:

• Modeless floating panel—Can be used as a "drawer" that can be closed and opened. It might also be used as a pull-down menu that contains custom data. This panel is positioned at X and Y coordinates on the form.
  
• Dialog (modal) floating panel—Can be used as a wizard to request or configure data. It might also be used in a common framework to load external content within a dialog box (such as a content from data visualization field) without requiring an intermediary form. This panel is centered relative to the view.
  
• Tooltip floating panel—Can be used to show additional details with options to navigate further. It might also replace a conventional tooltip when rich content (such as table fields) is needed. This panel is located relative to the event that triggered the workflow that opened the panel.
  

Panel fields

Panel fields organize other fields in one or more panels that can be displayed in various formats. Grouping information in panel fields within panel holders can make forms easier to use because users do not have to scroll through long forms to find a particular field.